Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Breaking Point

I hit a breaking point of sorts tonight.

It's been a long construction season and a busy fall sports season. Not to mention speech, Faith Formation, work, and the other everyday adventures that four kids bring. I've been handling the chaos pretty well, until this week.

I'm not really sure what happened, but suddenly I have no patience left for my children. I am trying not to feel sorry for myself.. I know there are people who do the parenting thing solo all the time, and my hat is off to those parents. I couldn't do it.

Tonight, I decided when the going gets tough, the tough make salsa.

I gave the big kids chores: one gave the little girls baths, the other folded and put away two loads of laundry. While they did that, I made salsa.

I've never made salsa before. I don't even really like salsa that much. But tonight, it seemed like a project I needed to tackle. I have boxes of tomatoes I picked from the garden now sitting in boxes in the basement. I have been patiently waiting for them to ripen. Tonight, there were enough red ones to make two batches of salsa (one batch takes 18 tomatoes). I stopped after one batch. But I gotta say, I'm pretty excited about this salsa. It looks, and smells, just like the stuff we buy.

But I'm even more excited about this salsa, because it may have saved me from doing, or saying, something I know I would regret. I was at a breaking point tonight. I was either going to freak out on my kids, or do something constructive. I'm so happy I chose the latter. I'm pretty sure they're happy about that too.

And the best part is, I have more tomatoes...waiting for the next time I need a "break".

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